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The Arts of Islamic Civilization PDF

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Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page i    24 The ARTS of Islamic Civilization Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ the international institute of islamic thought  •  Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page ii © The International Institute of Islamic Thought 1434ah/2013ce p.o. box 669, herndon, va 20172, usa www.iiit.org london office p.o. box 126, richmond, surrey tw9 2ud, uk www.iiituk.com This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the publishers. 978-1-56564-558-5 The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for the accuracy of the information presented. imagesp.6, 7 (copper plate), 10, 18, 21, 27iStockphoto p.8, 9, 10 (prayer rug), 11, 12, Wikimedia Commons Typesetting and Cover design by Shiraz Khan Series Editors dr. anas s. al-shaikh-ali shiraz khan Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page iii Foreword       () has great pleasure in presenting Occasional Paper 24The Arts of Islamic Civilizationby Isma¢Ïl al F¥r‰qÏ. It was originally published as chap- ter eight of The Cultural Atlas of Islamby Isma¢Ïl al F¥r‰qÏ and Lois Lamy¥’ al F¥r‰qÏ (1986), and formed part of a monumental and authoritative work presenting the entire worldview of Islam, its beliefs, traditions, institutions, and place in the world. Aside from the map illustrations, all other images have been updated and are not those of the original unless specified. Where the text refers to chap- ters these are to be found in the original work. Professor Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ (1921–1986)was a Palestinian- American philosopher, visionary, and an authority in comparative religion. A great contemporary scholar of Islam, his scholarship encompassed the whole spectrum of Islamic Studies, covering areas such as the study of religion, Islamic thought, approaches to knowl- edge, history, culture, education, interfaith dialogue, aesthetics, ethics, politics, economics, and science. Without doubt al F¥r‰qÏ was one of the great Muslim scholars of the 20th century. In this paper he presents the meaning and message of Islam to the wider world, pointing to taw^Ïd(the unity of God) as its essence and first determining principle which gives Islamic civilization its identity. The IIIT, established in 1981, has served as a major center to facilitate serious scholarly efforts based on Islamic vision, values and principles. The Institute’s programs of research, seminars and con- ferences during the last thirty years have resulted in the publication of more than four hundred titles in English and Arabic, many of which have been translated into other major languages.  . -- Academic Advisor, IIIT London Office Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page iv Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page 1 The Arts of Islamic Civilization In dealing with any aspect of Islamic civilization, its final raison d’etre and creative base must be seen as resting on the Qur’¥n, the Holy Scripture of Islam. Islamic culture is, in fact, a “Qur’¥nic culture”; for its definitions, its structures, its goals, and its methods for execution of those goals are all derived from that series of revelations from God to the Prophet Mu^ammad in the seventh century of the common era. It is not only the knowledge of Ultimate Reality that the Muslim derives from the Holy Book of Islam. Equally compelling and determining are its ideas on the world of nature, on man and all other living crea tures, on knowledge, on the social, political, and eco nomic institutions necessary for the healthy running of society –in short, on every branch of learning and activity known. This does not mean that specific ex planations and descriptions of every field of endeavor are literally spelled out in that small book of 114 suwar (sing. s‰rah) or chapters. It does mean that in it the basic principles are provided for a whole culture and civilization. Without that revelation, the culture could not have been generated; without that revela tion, there could have been neither an Islamic reli gion, an Islamic state, an Islamic philosophy, an Islamic law, an Islamic society, nor an Islamic political or economic organization. Just as surely as these aspects of Islamic culture may be rightly seen as Qur’¥nic in basis and motiva tion, in implementation and goal, the arts of Islamic civilization should also be viewed as aesthetic expres - sions of similar derivation and realization. Yes, the Islamic arts are indeed Qur’¥nic arts. This statement may be startling to non-Muslims who have long viewed Islam as an iconoclastic and conservative religion that denied 1 Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page 2 Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ or prohibited the arts.1It may be equally strange to some Muslims who have misunderstood the efforts of the ¢ulam¥’ (learned men) and the ummah to guide aesthetic par ticipation toward certain forms and types of art, and away from others. Some Muslims have thought that that guidance implied a rejection of, rather than a guidance for, Islamic art. Both of these views are misunderstandings of Islamic art and its genesis. How then are the Islamic arts to be seen as “Qur’¥nic” expressions in color, in line, in movement, in shape, and in sound? There are three levels on which such an interpretation rests.   The Qur’¥n as Definer ofTaw^Ïdor Transcendence The Message to be Aesthetically Expressed: Taw^Ïd The Qur’¥n was a revelation sent to mankind and intended to reteach the doctrine of monotheism, a message conveyed to numerous Semitic prophets of earlier times – Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus, for example. The Qur’¥n comprised a new statement of the doctrine of monotheism, of the one God Who is the unique, unchanging, and eter- nal Creator as well as Guide of the universe and allthat exists within it. Allah is described in the Qur’¥n as a transcendent Being of Whom no visual or sensory experience is possible. “No vision can grasp Him, . . . He is above allcom prehension” (Qur’¥n 6:103) . . . . “Nothing is like unto Him” (Qur’¥n 42:11). He is beyond exhaustive de scription, and incapable of being represented by any anthropomorphic or zoomor- phic image. In fact, Allah is that which defies answers to the questions of who, how, where, and when? It is this idea of the utter oneness and transcendence of Allah that is known as taw^Ïd (literally, “making one”). The Qur’¥nic statements regarding the nature of God certainly pre- clude God’s representation through sensory means, whether in human or animal forms or in figural symbols from nature; but this is not all 2 Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page 3 The Arts of Islamic Civilization that the Qur’¥nic message contributes to the Islamic arts. We find that the whole iconography of Islamic art has been significantly influenced by the Qur’¥nic doctrine of taw^Ïd or Islamic monotheism. If God was so com pletely nonnature, so ultimately different from His creation, it was not just a negative prohibition of natu ralistic images of Him that was necessary as Islam began its new career. That was an aesthetic achieve ment of the Semitic soul which had been made in an earlier peri- od by the followers of Judaism. Images of Yahweh were strongly condemned by all the Hebrew prophets, as well as in the well-known Second Com mandment of the Mosaic Code. Even setting down the name of God was discouraged. Instead, the four con sonants of the name “Yahweh,” or other abbrevia tions, often served as written sym- bol for the God of the Hebrews. Arising after the aesthetic influence from an alien tradition (that of the Greco-Romans and their Hellen istic offspring) had exerted itself for centuries over many regions of the Semitic East, Islam brought a demand for a new manner of aesthetic expression. The new Muslims needed an aesthetic mode that could supply objects of aesthetic con- templation and delight that would reinforce the basic ideology and structures of the society and be a constant reminder of its principles. Such art works would reinforce the awareness of that transcendent Being, the fulfillment of Whose will was the end-all and be-all, the rai- son d’etre, of human existence. This orientation and goal of Islamic aesthetics could not be achieved through depiction of man and nature. It could be realized only through the contemplation of artistic cre- ations that would lead the percipient to an intuition of the truth itself that Allah is so other than His creation as to be unrepresentable and inexpressible. This challenge for aesthetic creativity was taken up by the early Muslims. They worked with motifs and techniques known to their Semitic, Byzantine, and Sassanian predecessors; and they developed new motifs, materials, and techniques as the need and in spiration arose. Even more important was their cre ation of new modes of artistic expression which were to be adopted and adapted in various parts of the world as Muslim individuals and political power spread with the religion in the regions from Spain in the West to the Philippines in the 3 Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page 4 Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ Map 25. The Earth According to Al SharÏf al IdrisÏ, 562/1177 4 Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page 5 The Arts of Islamic Civilization East. These new modes have provided a basic aesthetic unity within the Muslim world without suppressing or prohibiting regional variety. Islamic art was to fulfill the negative implications behind the decla- ration of L¥ ilaha ill¥ Allah–thatthere is no God but God and He is completely other than human and other than nature. But it also was to express the positive dimension of taw^Ïd –thatwhich emphasizes not what God is not, but what God is. Probably the most salient aspect of the Transcen dent which the Islamic doctrine taught was that God is infinite in every aspect – in justice, in mercy, in knowledge, in love. However fully one might try to enumerate His many attributes, or describe any one of those attributes as applied to Him, the attempt would end in failure.2His qualities are always beyond human compre- hension and description. The pattern which has no beginning and no end, which gives an impression of infinity, is therefore the best way to express in art the doctrine of taw^Ïd. And it is the structures created for this purpose that characterize all the arts of the Muslim peoples. It is these infinite patterns, in all their ingenious variety, that provide the positive aesthetic breakthrough of the Muslims in the history of artistic expression. It is through these infinite patterns that the subtle content of the Islamic message can be experienced. The art of the Muslims has often been designated as the art of the infinite pattern or as “infinity-art.”3These aesthetic expressions have also been called “arabesques.”4The arabesque should not be limited to a particular kind of leaf design perfected by the Muslim peoples, as has sometimes been maintained.5 It is not simply any abstract two- dimensional pattern that uses calligraphy, geometric figures, and stylized plant forms.6Instead, it is a structural entity that accords with the aesthetic principles of the Islamic ideology. The arabesque gener- ates in the viewer an intuition of the quality of infinity, of that which is beyond space-time; but it does so without making the –to the Muslim – absurd claim that the pattern itself stands for that which is beyond. Through con templation of these infinite patterns, the recipient’s mind is turned toward the Divine, and art becomes a reinforcement and reminder of religious belief. This interpretation of the raison d’etre of Islamic art rules out many common misconceptions regarding this art’s rejection of figural art 5 Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:12 Page 6 Isma¢Ïl R¥jÏ al F¥r‰qÏ and the concentration instead on abstract motifs. For example, it denies the notion that nature is regarded by the Muslim as an illusion. For the Muslim, nature is part of God’s tangi ble creation, equally as real and valid and marvelous as humanity and the animal world. In fact, nature is re garded as a proof of the Creator’s power and benefi - cence (Qur’¥n 2:164, 6:95–99, 10:4–6, and so on). Neither can one maintain that it is an Islamic idea to regard nature as an evil to be dero- gated. How could the Muslim think of God’s creation as evil? Instead, nature is described by the Qur’¥n as a field of perfect and beautiful marvels presented for mankind’s use and benefit (Qur’¥n 2:29, 78:6–16, 25:47–50, etcet era). For the Muslim, nature, although glori- ous in its variety and perfection, is only the theater in which humans operate to fulfill the will of a higher realm or cause. God, for the Muslim, is this highest Cause, “the greater One.” Allahu Akbar is the ubiquitous Muslim exclamation of appreciation, admiration, thanks, and inspiration that expresses this belief. While other cultures and peo- ples may have regarded man as “the measure of all things” or nature as the ultimate determiner, the Muslim’s concentration has been on God in His uncompromising transcendence.7 Islamic art then has a goal similar to that of the Qur’¥n –to teach and reinforce in mankind the per ception of divine transcendence. Characteristics of the Aesthetic Expression of Taw^Ïd That is not the only way in which a bond exists between the Qur’¥n and Islamic art. It is also embod ied in the aesthetic characteristics which the Muslims devised in order A Middle Eastern to create the impression of wooden plate infinity and transcendence decorated with mother- demanded by the Qur’¥nic of-pearl and doc trine of taw^Ïd. How is camel bone inlay. The this doctrine emphasized entire design through aesthetic content is inlaid – not painted. and form to stimulate the impression of infinity and transcendence? 6

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was one of the great Muslim scholars of the 20th century. arts of Islamic civilization should also be viewed as aesthetic expres - Qayt Bay,. Cairo. (1472-. 1474CE). Cultural Atlas The ARTS_FARUQI 06/01/2014 15:13 Page 25 . 6 Ernst KЭhnel, “Arabesque,” The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed.
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